Medical tourism in Thailand: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the magnitude and characteristics of medical tourism in Thailand and the impact of such tourism on the Thai health system and economy.MethodsIn 2010, we checked the records of all visits to five private hospitals that are estimated to cover 63% of all foreign patients. We reviewed hospital records of foreign patients and obtained data on their countries of origin, diagnoses and interventions. We surveyed 293 medical tourists to collect demographic characteristics and information on their expenditure and travelling companions. To help understand the impact of medical tourism on the Thai health system, we also interviewed 15 hospital executives and 28 service providers from the private hospitals.FindingsWe obtained 911 913 records of hospital visits, of which 324 906 came from 104 830 medical tourists. We estimated that there were 167 000 medical tourists in Thailand in 2010. Of the medical tourists who attended our study hospitals, 67 987 (64.8%) came from the eastern Mediterranean region or Asia and 109 509 (34%) of them were treated for simple and uncomplicated conditions – i.e. general check-ups and medical consultations. The mean self-reported non-medical expenditure was 2750 United States dollars. According to the hospital staff interviewed, medical tourism in 2010 brought benefits to – and apparently had no negative impacts on – the Thai health system and economy.ConclusionWe estimate that the total number of medical tourists visiting Thailand is about 10% of previous national government estimates of 1.2 million. Such tourists appear to bring economic benefits to Thailand and to have negligible effects on the health system.

Role of Travel Motivations, Perceived Risks and Travel Constraints on Destination Image and Visit Intention in Medical Tourism: Theoretical model

“…7 However, the number of medical tourists moving between southern countries is also extremely high; approximately 500,000 medical tourists travelled to South Africa from other African 8,9 Thailand also receives a large number of medical travellers from neighbouring countries (2.5 million in 2012). 10 Moreover, approximately 100,000 people from East Africa are estimated to travel to India every year for medical purposes.…”

Medical Tourism Destinations Prioritization using Group Decision Making Method with Neutrosophic Fuzzy Preference Relations

“…In this section, we discuss the proposed MCGDM-NFPRs in comparison with the other two methods, according to Tables (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) and Figs. (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) and based on Cases (1, 2).…”

“…(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6) and based on Cases (1, 2). The findings are discussed in the following six parts.…”

“…were chosen and divided into three groups: (1) strengthening of the infrastructure wherein 1 C is quality of infrastructure of the medical establishments, 2 C represents traffic convenience and population statistics and 3 C is the information infrastructure and circulation channels; (2) strengthening of the services for medical tourism in which 4 C is the supply of skilled technological workers and 5 C is the quality of medical operators and consultancy centers; and (3) the planning and policies for medical tourism where 6 C and 7 C represent progress plan, corresponding laws and policies respectively. In consideration of the above criteria, six experts were invited to give their linguistic decision for nine cities in India including Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, and Kochi.…”

“…Many researches have contributed to the aggregation of FPRs, such as Li et al [47] came up with the conversion of interval multiplicative weights to acceptable interval multiplicative PRs and established an interval multiplicative weight derivation model, Wang and Lin [48] explored the priority weight elicitation for triangular fuzzy multiplicative PRs, and Wang [49] presented a linear goal programming framework in order to obtain normalized interval weights from interval FPRs. 5 We can conclude from all these studies that the exiting forms of FPRs cannot deal with a situation where experts are hesitant about their judgments due to the lack of information and the complexity of the real environment. It is obvious therefore that consistency is a vital and useful tool to ensure the logic and efficiency of a preference.…”